"Pink slime" maker plans defamation suit

Craig Letch, director of food quality and assurance for Beef Products Inc. (BPI), left, introduces the beef product known as pink slime or lean finely textured beef, and the cuts from which it is made to, from left: Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, South Dakota Lt. Gov. Matt Michels and Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy, during a tour Thursday, March 29, 2012, of the Beef Products Inc.'s plant in South Sioux City, Neb., where the beef product is made. / AP Photo

(AP) LINCOLN, Neb. - Beef Products Inc. plans to file a defamation lawsuit in the wake of a publicity storm over a meat product that critics have dubbed "pink slime."

The Dakota Dunes, S.D.-based company said Wednesday that it will announce a lawsuit Thursday. A company executive and lawyer refused to name the defendant.

Company officials have long insisted that the product is safe and healthy, and blamed the closure of three plants and roughly 700 layoffs on what they viewed as a smear campaign.

The lean, textured beef trimmings were the subject of many media reports earlier this year, and also have drawn comments from television chefs and food commentators. The term "pink slime" was coined by a former U.S. Department of Agriculture microbiologist.

Watch: Most U.S. schools say no to "pink slime"
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BPI has declined to discuss how much it has lost in sales, but acknowledged it took a "substantial" hit after social media erupted with worry over the product and an online petition seeking its ouster from schools drew hundreds of thousands of supporters.

Critics worried about the way the meat is processed — bits of beef are heated and treated with a small amount of ammonia to kill bacteria. The filler has been used for years and meets federal food safety standards.

The company has won public backing from multiple governors, including Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman.

[hypnotoad72]

So eating one meal made from that won't cause harm?

Try a few more and see what happens.

I will not eat that stuff. Certainly not on a regular basis, which is something that is inferred by some of these outlets by saying it's safe to eat, followed by all the bought and paid-for politicians digging in as if it were a royal ceremony...

And there IS a difference between business and pro-life aspects, by the way. Let's see these people wanting to sue eat a daily diet of it for a fair period of time, the way they convince everyone else, and see what really happens.

Good luck.

[m1ldbrew]

I can clearly see the amount of white fat in that meat, my God, its really disgusting, there is probably 30%-40% pure fat in there.

These politicians and the FDA should be ashamed of themselves for allowing garbage into our children. These are the real enemies of our citizens, the terrorists can only hurt a few, but these killers are destroying millions of Americans by feeding them garbage.

[wardove]

cant blame the food for making you fat lol

[PeterThePolish]

If it was actually what you paid for and or food, then you can't but this whole company was created by the industrial need to rip people off by adding this pink blood fat paste into your normal burger so they can make more money and not actually sell any meat, just blood fat, since your paying 7 dollars for a pound of this beef and slime mix, and since this year the burgers stopped shrinking, they should be criminally held liable, they made people fat, they feed them fat knowingly, and didn't label it because they knew people don't want to pay the same money for this boiled blood fat paste. Not just call it what it is, Fat -Paste with blood for color pressed to simulate beef texture.

[Bocephus_Moonshine]

How sad and ironic. Companies were caught putting something other than meat in our meat, got called out on it, and they have the gall to sue rather than bow their heads in shame and issue an apology? Ridiculous. This is a frivolous lawsuit.

[rubberrezi]

The governors of Iowa and Nebraska are behind them?? Go figure. That and corn in the only thing in those two god forsaken states.

[skeezix06]

I've stopped eating hamburger.

[skeezix06]

And by the way. A lawsuit isn't going to make any PR points with consumers. If anything it will make them even more wary of buying ground meat of any kind; beef, pork, poultry.

[PeterThePolish]

I agree with the guy below, me, just because companies get away with making garbage paste and labeling it as food, because nasty rot parts where boiled to kill of the definitive bacteria does not make it good, ok, or food, a creative scam option to save a buck and make an entire corporation on rotted fat parts & Blood Color does not qualify as GOOD in any term or the word. that stuff is just gross, why is the word "texture" in the company bait and switch word? What kind of texture does this rot have? This whole argument from the corporation is that its good safe to eat!.....SO is card board, where do you draw the line? IF the "Beef", can only be sold by making it into paste, since there is no bigger parts in it to sell it as beef, which means the parts have to be quite nasty and small, or large and just beef fat, well what are you selling to people, fatty oils so it fills in the LBS poundage into regular meat so the sellers of ground beef can charge the SAME price for the beef and pocket more money, while other people who don't put this crap in sell it for the same price to compete, have more morals, IT STILL DOES NOT MAKE IT IT OK sell this bio. THAT Is ALL IT IS, think about it, why is it in the shape it is? WELL because the majority of it is not Beef, it came off the cow, yes but its nothing more then died painted FAT, FAT painted with blood and mixed to the new pink fat can be sold as "BEEF". THE NERVE OF THESE GUYS.

[PeterThePolish]

You wonder why Americans are getting fat? WELL this is Exhibit a b and c. You buy burger meat, thinking you get a burger, but instead you a get a shrink-er, ever wonder this summer the burgers stopped shrinking on the grill? WELL we stopped consuming fat blood paste. America needs to sue this company for getting people fat, no other country eats burgers of beef for that matter, only us here, no wonder everyone got fat, if you eat tacos or burgers in the past, you where eating mainly painted fat, so it scam the consumer by paying for the weight what was believed to be ground beef, not ground textured fat and beef shrinking mix.

[BWB2020]

The grounds for a defamation suit are extremely weak, all the data on "pink slime" I have seen simply notes that it is left-over beef trimmings that are treated with ammonia, which is basically poison.

Unless they can prove that they have a method to eliminate all traces of poisons intentionally introduced into the product, they can cry all they want, but when the so-called "defamation' is based in fact, it is no longer defamation.

[YoosAir]

Just give BPI what they want...

The federal contract for soylent green production, along with the manpower required to make such a "national security" staple.

[smartalec95070]

It wasn't a smear campaign, it was a cultural awakening...

[davidd5063]

"Lean finely textured beef" is quite the "mouthful" now isn't it. My tummy hurts - time to go deposit some "lean finely textured" whatever I ate yesterday.